Blizzard’s turning heads that probably shouldn’t be turning today off news that World of Warcraft — the most successful online roleplaying game in history — lost 14% of its subscriber base over the past three months. Make that 1.3 million players.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Even with that sharp drop, the not-so-little fantasy MMO that could still has over eight million subscribers worldwide; most MMOs these days, say Star Wars: The Old Republic, are lucky to swing a million. With the next expansion possibly coming later this year (and surely by the next), it’ll surely make its historic 10-year anniversary (November 2014) intact.

Still, at its peak, WoW could lay claim to stratospheric subscriber numbers: 12 million back in October 2010 (oh heady days). By August 2011, however, that figure had fallen back to just over 11 million, and in November 2011, it fell again to just over 10 million. At roughly 8 million after this latest plunge, we’re talking a 25% slide down from the mountaintop, and — this is important — one that’s occurred despite Blizzard’s attempts to rally players with WoW‘s third and fourth expansions, released in December 2010 and September 2012 respectively.

Blizzard hasn’t announced what comes next, though Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said the game still had “long-term value” during an earnings call this week (via Seeking Alpha):

It’s important to note that the nature of online games has changed, and with the environment becoming far more competitive, especially with free-to-play games. To address this, we’re working to release new content more frequently to keep our players engaged longer and make it easier for lapsed players to come back into the game. We believe in the long-term value of this franchise and will continue to commit substantial resources to World of Warcraft.

Noting that any game has a shelf life is a little like trend-watching seasons or sunspot cycles, so let’s focus on the less obvious stuff, like that a significant portion of WoW‘s subscriber base has been in the East, and that a substantial portion (“a majority,” says Blizzard) of the 1.3 million subscribers just lost are of that demographic (the BBC reads this as a failure on Blizzard’s part to appeal to that market with recent game upgrades). Activision’s also saying to expect “further volatility” (read: subscriber base erosion) because of market competition and the time between expansions. Kotick noted the next content update, though not an expansion, arrives later this month.

Part of Kotick’s strategy to reinvigorate WoW involves somehow wooing lapsed subscribers, who, like me, tend to come and go, signing up to play for a bit when something new comes along, then hopping off the wagon for months or years at a time. To remedy this, says Kotick

…we’re examining ways we can ease the transition back into the game for returning players. We’ve always seen players come and go from World of Warcraft. Smoothing out that transitional period is something we’re studying, as we adjust our approach to player behavior and preferences.

Three words: seeing is believing, or these four: easier said than done. You don’t often encounter the analogy, but sometimes I wonder if Blizzard hoped WoW might become a kind of online Disneyworld, an exemplar fantasy-verse players could sign up to ride the rides and see the sights indefinitely. And yet the game lives on a platform in slow decline, one that faces increasingly stiff competition from tablets and other mobile devices. It’s practically impossible to know how much of this rapid platform shift accounts for WoW‘s subscription declines, here or elsewhere, but whatever the company’s next MMO (codenamed “Project Titan”) — “World of Warcraft 2″ or “World of StarCraft” or something completely new — it almost certainly won’t be PC-only.

Wow died when Activision took over.They implemented many pay for items and went against many things they said they never would.Nw they are just milking it to the ground, and making it as simple as it can be to get the most people playing.

They lost over half their player base, but revenues are higher then ever. Thats all you need to know about activision

WoW was epic as long as it was connected to the story of Warcraft, especially Warcraft 3. That is why i loved Vanilla, TBC and WotLK so much. When Cataclysm came, it felt differently. I know that Deathwing is connected to the story of Warcraft, but it was still just... meh. But anyway, it was playable and enjoyable, although not really as epic as fighting Arthas, Illidan, Kel'Thuzad, etc. But when Mists of Pandaria came out... my first thought was "RIP".

once Activision started interfering with the game design and goals , the game started its incline , they are just bunch of money greedy mofos and they dont care about keeping the quality of the game rather than making the game easy mode to attract more nursery children to pay for more subs thats all

all mature players base left , all serious players stopped subbing game over ... game derailed into the toilet now

Wow was diagnosed with Cancer at Wotlk when they introduced easymode by introducing hardmodes. Since then they tried to cure it by adding more easymodes like Looking for Raid and now the new tumor the flex mode.

I am Italian and have played WOW since TBC on Jaedenar EU. I was pvp during TBC, and loved it, but inevitably switched to pve during wotlk. I think that WOTLK has been the best expansion EVER made. Every single raid was damn cool, Naxxramas, Ulduar, TOK, VOA and ICC. I simply loved playing because every single thing I did thrilled me and involved me, not to forget Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron and Frozen Halls. Not having time for a guild i always pugged raids and I always made it through the first four bosses of ICC, and they were damn awesome. I started playing cataclysm and really enjoyed firelands but i quitted when horrifying LFR came out. The question is: Why did WOW become so crappy? the answer is debatable but in my opinion the game is not catchy anymore. When I play MOP i get bored easily, dungeons are tremendous, LFR is the worst and most boring thing in the world and leveling is not fun and challenging anymore. It is difficult to pug plus there are no pugs running for lower IL raids, because LFR for Siege of Orgrimmar gives higher item level and they are boring and unatractive, so once SOO is done that's it! Finished! While in WOTLK every week i tried to clean every single raid for fun, because they were amazing, and to substitute low gear score items that I was not able to replace with an ICC drop. Let's add all of this to the fact that my server has become a desert, while before it was one of the best servers for pug raids and a respectable server for hosting guilds like Flare EU, that now God knows what happened to it. I am sorry to say that wow is slowly declining and if something isn't done fast Blizzard will suffer from the consequences of these retard/babish/kongfupanda patches.

While yes, I agree with most of the people on this forum, I do think that WoW is an amazing game. It has yet to drive me away. Of course there are disappointments as there are with many good things, but I do not think this should compel subscribers to quit the game! I have found many other pleasures in the game other than the simple and obvious points such as questing, grinding, raiding, and battlegrounds. When I get bored, and this happens plenty of times, I decide to go find something else, more entertaining to do! For instance, completing as many achievements as I can in one day to see how fast I can get the WotLK flying mounts was fun for me as a max level. Or in this time of the year, completing all of the Hallows End achievements/quests, etc, is very time worthy for me at least. It's different for different players but there are still plenty of things to do in the game that are still plenty of fun. Just need to look at the bright side of things - all games have down periods and you just gotta wait em out. And who knows, maybe blizzard will turn it around this next expansion and bring back millions of their lost subscribers! We can all agree that spending 38 hours a week on WoW was time well spent! :)

I see this is old and maybe dead but I have to say, It's a dying game plain and simple. There are ways to improve it (new models,talent revamps,slow releasing content,etc.), but it never lasts. They are aware of all these I'm sure, but fact is no matter what is done they will and do lose subs. The hard core wow fan base alone does not pay for the servers,development and maintenance. There has to be a constant and the lower the incoming revenue,the less that can go out for major changes. Why invest millions in a product that, no matter how epic, will only keep subs up for 4-6 months before they need to do it again. It takes time to develop and create the type of changes people constantly want. The average new player can now level 1-90 in less than 4 weeks, add another 6 weeks max and all new content played. You can give or take a month or two at max for hardcore vs casual playing. When players leave the game, a lot leave around the same time, to where you have like a 30% increase in subs from new players followed by a 70% decrease of long time players. They tried holding us hostage with the charger mount if we agreed to not unsubscribe for a year and that did not work. There is nothing short of throwing away millions a year to create a whole new version of the same old game and they know that's not good for them. It's about dollars not fans. Casuals don't like grinds,large unfriendly raid groups, or unrealistic time investments for rewards everyone else in game can easily obtain. Hard core raiders (if you can even call wow raids hardcore anymore) get tired of casuals running in and progressing at the same pace as them. There is no affordable middle ground to keep everyone interested long enough to balance their flow vs expense. If you unsub, don't cry about low pop, or rumors of it's end. You're adding to that. If you keep your sub up even when not playing...enjoy while it lasts and hope for a toon downloadable console version to hit so you can save your characters to it before servers go down for good whenever that may be.

Best thing to do here, play if you want to and don't play if you choose. I have played WOW off and on through the years. I never rushed to get the latest expansion. I prefer to wait till it goes down to $10.00 or less. But, when I eventually get it and play again, the wait is well worth it. I can take my time and then when I get bored or do not see the value in it anymore for that particular point in time, I cancel my subscription and pay something else. But, the PC gaming market will always be superior to the console market. I can still play Call Of Duty 4 online today and there are plenty of MODS still online and plenty of people playing. Try to get that with XBOX Live or Playstation Network. It simply is not there. Even the original Counter Strike has a huge population still playing today. Look how old that game is.

1. Significant set bonuses and the increase in their significance with the increase in level of difficulty. The Heroic set bonus should NOT be the same is normal, what a slap in the face.

2. Let each player via quest grind or what ever chose old raid sets and create an epic version of BOA gear.

3. Bring 40 mans back with a comparable increase in drops to match 10 and 25 mans.

4. Quest keys for raids and high level dungeons worked.

5. Recreate all dungeons to drop the same gear but at the average level of the players in the dungeon. So level 70 players running Scarlet Monastery would get a level 70 Mograin's Might, etc.

6. Finish creating the recolor of raid gear look a like sets that drop in dungeons.

7. Have majority of Transmog gear drop in these dungeons for all classes from all bosses, so there is no dungeon that's getting ignored and no dungeon boss that's filing harassment charges because everyone and their momma has killed him / her for that one item.

8. There should be rewards for every level of player but again they should not be the same. Elite armor PVP Wolf Mount that fights for you for 30 sec (Only in open world or instanced open world battles.....no raids, arena or PvP or maybe in Arena and PvP with a one time use) Not so Elite Wolf Mount for the non hardcore.

9. Quests of significance, PLEASE!! Class quests, quests to create awesome looking items and weaps whose level of awesomeness coincide with your dedication of to complete the quest. No I don't mean some grind either, but quests that require you to master class abilities, that require party assist and yes some parts should be....well do you want this awesome item then come and find me I'm some where in Azeroth...maybe whispers heard only from the player random riddles pertaining to the game and let there be so many of these that it'd be difficult next to impossible for 1 person to get there item and then simply tell everyone else how to get it.

10. Bring back Talent Points, and stop trying to prevent people from having there 31 points in resto and dps, or dps and tank tree.

The shock value of vanilla will never return....never. But Blizz should look at what has worked and what has not. In vanilla there were always worth while goals which had to be achieved before you even thought of stepping up. Whether it be farming the multitude of dungeons for that certain level of fire resist before your guild even thought about letting you into Molten Core. There was nothing wrong with 40 mans, it made sure you would never just power thru content. You really couldn't step into BWL without a significant number of your raid having MC gear. The event to open AQ was the best idea ever followed by the worst in BC and that damn Isle of Infinite Blah grind. But back to AQ lets face most of us only beat AQ when we dinged level 80...lol. Now that's so freakin content.

Well, if they'd kept the same quality they'd achieved in WotLK, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Lich King was remarkable. Cataclysm was...well, it was a catastrophe. MoP isn't bad, and Pandaria is a nice novelty to explore, but they've nerfed the entire game and lost their base - the hardcore players who relish a challenge rather than go through the motions.

They need to go back to what they were doing in vanilla, BC, and Wrath. If they do that, the game will likely bring back some of the subscribers it lost. If not...well, you'll continue to see a decline as it continues to draw more casual gamers who don't stick around because they don't get sucked in.

I like how people always run to the defense of Activision and are all "THOSE 1.3 MILLION LOST SUBS WERE FROM ASIA AND THEY WERE GOLD FARMERS!" Like it would make any difference? That is STILL 1.3 million PAYING subscribers that are no longer paying. What do you not understand about that?

You even bring up the fact that they are moving on to other ventures ... yeah, because no one wants to buy junk on WoW anymore because everyone is leaving.

Jesus, take your fanboy capes off because you look like a bunch of idiots.

Cataclysm was the beginning of the end. I was an avid player.. a Kingslayer, a mountain of mounts... but the game got boring. The talent trees became simplistic and dare I say illogical. They dumbed the game down for 3rd graders to play, they added kung-fu pandas and made you grind endlessly. And even though I have a great guild, sometimes you want to run without them because of time etc. Tthey made it harder and harder to do anything without one, almost impossible to PUG and when you do they are full of children. They lost their mojo, they forgot who their base was and it cost them.

I also feel they have simplified the game, talent trees are a prime example. I have played since TBC and personally enjoyed that and WotLK the best. Talent trees have gone from a point every level to one every 15 and now provides no excitement for levelling up. Take a look at single player rpg games like Champions of Norath, Elders scrolls etc and getting new points frequently makes levelling exciting. As for end game content, in WotLK I had the highest dps on Barthilas server and was a very good tank. I got the gear to do this relatively easily by starting off hosting pugs to get all the 10 man gear, and then slowly progressing into 25s and hard modes, yet now it is even easier. What frustrates me the most though is how they still cant manage to seem to balance classes... i don't understand the difficulty to have them balanced. Surely they can develop an algorithm and have it all sorted out because surely after almost 9 years, they could balance the classes by now... It is very frustrating how after every patch you need to change your rotation/spec just to accomodate for the changes. People like consistency. I have really been missing WOW recently as i have not gotten overly into any other mmo since quiting (have played cata and mop, got to max level, played for a couple weeks before quiting). I really wish things, particularly talent tree related aspects, as well as removing the raid finder, went back to how things were in wrath. I do like LFG (dungeons only) but LFR had ruined the game. If the game did revert back to wrath days, Myself, along with 10 of my friends who have also quit since mop, would come flocking back, and i am sure it is safe to say we are not the only ones who would come back. If they want to ad things for social players, add something like the house builder in runescape... something that is an optional thing that doesnt necesarily require players to be geared, dont dumb down the rest of the game just so they can play it. Noobs dont play games like wow for extended periods, dedicated players will stick around if the game does not turn to crap.

More than anything else, I think the monotony of the game is what drives people to quit. I've given up on the game a number of times myself. For me, it happens not long after every expansion. There is a fevered level up, then the monotony sets in where you do not see any new content and end up doing the same grinding daily quests or dungeons all the time. Creating additional characters might spice things up for a short while, but inevitably the game becomes boring and my interest dissipates to the point of complete apathy.

For a while, this disinterest was driven by raiding in a guild that wasn't really hardcore. So, while we would down some bosses and eventually clear most dungeons, we spent the vast majority of our time dieing and repairing. Now, its the exact opposite. I don't have the time or interest to be a hardcore raider, so I queue for LFR, see and clear new content immediately, and am left with nothing else to do. Its fun for a bit, but once you get your loot, you have no more interest in the game.

I'll probably stop playing once again pretty soon here. I was late to the MoP expansion, but am already apathetic towards it. I'll keep my eyes and ears open for any new content on the horizon I suppose, but the game just does not have that new interest to me anymore. Each time I leave, I come back for a shorter time and leave for longer.

Before Mists of Pandaria, the story lines were epic, and they all threaded together - although Cataclysm was a tiny bit weak(actually it was almost as weal as MoP) compared with previous content, but at least it kept some sort of continuity (with the old gods corrupting the Earth Warden(Black Dragon Aspect)).

Mists of Pandaria simply involves the two factions randomly beaching themselves on some lost forgotten land and until they dream up a real PLOT that incorporates the main story line players can no longer relate to the lore of the game - which is what fantasy games are about.

So all they have to do is revive the storyline and the game will be good again, simple.

I really used to enjoy this game, I started playing in April 2008, the month when WoW became the most popular MMORPG in the world. TBC was a brilliant expansion - That was WoW's golden age. When mounts were purchased at level 40 and level 60, not level 20 and level 40. The game was fairly difficult to play, but now look at it! The game is no longer fun to play, and Blizzard's problem is that they don't listen to the opinions of the players. WoW will soon no longer be the most popular MMORPG.

Others have said it already on here, but I'll echo it as well: quite simply, the game got weak. It isn't that I grew out of playing games for a pastime. I just moved on to games that challenged me. While not as big as WoW, I found The Secret World completely refreshing with puzzles that were outstandingly devilish in design. About the first time I had to research how to do one of the quests, I discovered that I should have applied some real world puzzle-solving skills to the game. It was designed to be challenging. WoW, on the other hand, was re-designed to become the world's biggest MMO. Doing this meant that they needed to change their target audience to a younger player. Leveling got dumbed down, it became easier to acquire epic gear, dungeons became weaksauce, and all of the cool character abilities lost their usefulness. About the time it degenerated into Tank + Healer + 3 DPS, I realized I was done with the game. I played at a time with crowd control was a term that didn't elicit comments from such leet players (most likely 9 or 10) like, "wtf noob stfu".

Right after fire-lands everything started to dumb down.. I even bought game and subcription for kung fu panda, hoping to get that sick 58 hour rush till max level with no sleep lots of energy drinks and junk food, I logged off after 3 hours and never turned it on again...

It's simple why wow is dying off....because you keep tailoring the game towards the weak..... it's to easy to get geared and to easy to be good now. Instead of setting apart the 1% of the actual people who are really good at the game that number grew to 10% in BC and Wrath was an even larger jump in percentage of people who are able to "keep up" or even "do well".. for alot of avid gamers it just isn't a challenge anymore.

I simply quit due to the real life situation, couldnt find the time and when i found the time i couldnt buy a new computer and pay monthly unfortunately . The game was awesome and still looks to be awesome, i quit right in the beginning of CATA, had nothing to do with Blizzard in a negative way at all. People are to needy and complain to much, its a great game and need to just suck it up, either play or dont play . THAT SIMPLE :)

1: Player community. There are certainly some decent
folks playing this game, and if you get into a good guild you will be fine, BUT
the overall player community here is atrocious. I’ve had the luxury of playing other
MMO’s (EQOA, City of Heroes, ST:Online, Everquest, to name a few), and NEVER
have I seen a more rude, immature, or elitist group of players. Ever. Period.

On top of that, there was a lack of the GM’s
ability/desire to monitor or police the chat channels. Racist, sexist, and
homophobic remarks were not only common, but would go on and on for hours…
regardless of reporting.

2: Lack of choice. There was precious little choice
to begin with when the game first launched, with limited avatar customization
in appearance and skill sets. However, this lack of choice has become ever more
prevalent as the talent trees were (overly) simplified and the classes homogenized.

Furthermore, the quest system became so ridiculously
linear that the feeling of forging your own adventures across the world was
lost.

3: World PvP and unbalanced servers. The main draw
for me to this game was the dynamic player versus player world environment. This
dynamic has not only been ignored, but actively destroyed through a focus on
arena and battlegrounds while completely ignoring population imbalances between
factions on PvP realms.

Which means that the whole reason I picked up the
game, massive world PvP, was actively being eradicated.

4: Arena. Without world PvP to enjoy, the next best
thing to massively multiplayer PvP would be battlegrounds. Or you would think…
except that there was no focus on balance here either. That focus went to small
scale match ups of 3 vs 3 or 5 vs 5 in an arena system that I did not really
enjoy.

The bottom line: WoW is still an outstanding game
overall.. Keep in mind that most of my issues with WoW had little to do with
the actual quality of the game itself, but rather the direction the game was
going.

I wanted greater customization and more freedom of choice
in my character’s development and story, while the developers were moving in
the opposite direction. I wanted a more open and massive PvP experience while
the developers were moving that aspect of the game to a much smaller model. I
wanted guild halls or a castle our guild could build together, but that was apparently
never going to happen.

Then I played City of Heroes, and everything I ever
really wanted was there. So I bailed on WoW with their massive market share and
12 million subs, and thoroughly enjoyed the hell out of a much smaller little
game that had a much friendlier community and the freedom I so craved.

But that game was sunsetted this year, and no longer
exists. Which is really too bad, and frustrating. I would have liked to have
seen CoH continue, as would many have. Perhaps one day CoH will rise again. Until
then, there are hundreds of other options out there, with better graphics and better
ideas and better mechanics with more freedom and more choice than WoW ever
offered. Most are free to try or even free to play.

Supposedly the bulk of the subscription losses were in Asia where they have a different subscription model. Many of the problems inherent in the game in the rest of the world are amplified there since different raid types, etc, do not share the same weekly lockouts, so there is more obligatory content and thus more burn out.

@Dstwiztid2 i agree with a lot of what you said but what minamum player base do you think is needed to keep the game going? Because the closest popular mmo games barely have 1 million subs. I dont think blizz could get their subs to drop under 2 million ever, just because its an antique of a game many had good experiences with.

I do blame activation for all of this. Getting rid of a lot of talents in the next pack and dwindling it down even more so you could just smash your head on your keys and be effective. They dont put the time into balancing anymore and love to reskin everything from weapons to terrain.

@dor3999 I agree. It has run it's course for me. If I could get on tonight and make the decision to spend $50 for a years subscription and not have to spend an additional $50 for the next big release - it would be considerable....but for the price and knowing what I'm going to get for that price...it's playe.d

@SuperhumanFeats they arent going to do what it takes to get people back. They are doing a stat squish and they are also drastically reducing spells and abilities each class has. They say they are "getting rid of the clutter" but its activision trying to save money by not having to balance as much. Basically they are being greedy and lazy about class balance.

@Greenan I don't know if I agree with that - I don't know if you've gotten into the two latest patches (or if you play Alliance and things are different there), but the Hellscream storyline has been pretty good.

@TsarEdwardBaker this game was done when activision bought them. Activision saw the large player subs as money to be sucked dry. Like many investent banks, they buy good companies then suck the assets dry. Thats what is happeing to our world of warcraft. Just look at the sub numbers, then compare them to their revenue.

We know this game isnt getting any better and its losing players by the fistful, but they are making more money then ever from wow.Shows where their intentions are. Its why they are dumbing things down so a skeleton crew could balance it.

@SamuelRosenbalm "Let me make this very clear: the largest part of that 1.3 million subscriber drop-off is from Asia. And many of them are gold farmers (many of whom held multiple accounts) who have moved on to more profitable ventures."

When the gold farmers are leaving because they are looking for more profitable ventures then you know a game really is dying. You kind of set yourself up for that one pal.

@SamuelRosenbalm you really haven't played wow in the last 2 years have you, cause on most servers you can tell a lot less people are playing wow and by a lot its a huge number and that's in eu alone. So instead of calling people winey bitches why don't you actually open your eyes and look around you when you play then youll see what a lot of people are talking about and wining about. Unless your just special

I’ve had the luxury of playing other MMO’s (EQOA, City of Heroes, ST:Online, Everquest, to name a few), and NEVER have I seen a more rude, immature, or elitist group of players. Ever. Period.

---

I like how everyone DEMANDS harder and easier content all together. Period. I see many of those people in Guild Wars 2 now (but that 's another story). And I believe it 's partly their fault that WoW, Diablo 3 and Blizzard alltogether is falling to pieces (aside from their greedy management).

If it 's to hard:See it as a challange and try again later, maybe do something else. At least if it 's challenging and not hard as in time needed. Then you might want to skip it alltogether if you don't have the time and move on.

If it 's to easy: Live with it as well and move on if it doesn't satisfy you.

I think the amount of "community" influence nowadays is just wrong. Use Facebook, and don't offer a Forum with anonymic names, would be the first step in the right direction. At least then some trolls will be put on hold needing to provide their real name before ranting around how hard or how easy everything is.

Many D1, D2 and WoW-Developers of the first hour left Blizzard for a good reason and some of them even moved on (like with developing Torchlight 2). It will never be the same, and WoW will die out like any other MMO will. Sooner or later - I couldn't care. To be honest I hope it lives long enought to keep the kind minded together and keep them away from any other titles.

Oh well, and no offense, it 's just my humble opinion and not directed on anyone here.

@SamuelRosenbalm Right because all the hardcore raiders left because this latest expansion was made for the next generation gamer..aka noobs and no offense to the noobs, but this community is definitely not a good place to start learning. Advice to new MMO players..pick an MMO..with a good community, and start there.

@SamuelRosenbalmYou just contradicted yourself. If the 1.3 million that quit is mostly
gold farmers then your claim is WOW is as popular as ever. You then went
on to say "have moved on to more profitable ventures." If WOW is just
as popular as ever with non gold farmers why would they move on? What
made WOW less profitable? Gold farmers don't sell to gold farmers, so If
the REAL player base remains unchanged there would be no dropoff in
profit. GW2 is a seriously unfarmer friendly game so they aren't going
there. What MMO has 8million active subscribers? Well WOW has 8 million
just not active so the writings on the wall. WOW won't die for many
years fact of the matter is there will always be the diehards that live
their life thru WOW and would commit suicide if it ever died. These
people will always be in denial, No offense. Nice attempt at a baby troll tho ;-)

@MattClarke exactly. I played back in the vanilla days when it was a tough game and you had to learn your class and spec. Guilds would spend weeks trying to learn 1 raid and when you went in to a 5 man you expected to have at least 1 party wipe. I stopped playing for almost a year when Pandaria first came out and tried to go back recently. It has been so dumbed down that it was easier than Angry Birds now. Any 9 year old button masher can fly from 1 to 80 in a couple of weeks. A game that once requiered team work long quest lines and some level of determination on the part of the players has become a joke of a game designed for impatient foul mouthed 14 year olds.

@haldandaddy While I completely agree with your points on the game, I wanted to comment on how well written your piece was. I have become so used to poor grammar and use of punctuation that reading this was a shock to the system. As a professional writer, it is refreshing to see people on comment boards taking the time to produce such well-thought out, and eloquent, commentary.